State honour for security personnel killed by Maoists

BHUBANESWAR - Orissa Monday bid adieu with full state honours to 10 security personnel, who were killed in a land mine blast in Koraput district Sunday.

The last remains of the security personnel were given floral tributes with full state honours at the Koraput Reserve Police Battalion premises in the presence of senior police officers and other state officials before sending them to their native places.

The bodies were received by wailing relatives crying inconsolably at the loss of their dear ones. In some places the last remains were carried in a procession to their villages before being cremated.

Maoist guerrillas Sunday detonated a powerful landmine and blew up a police bus in a hilly and forest area, 14 km from Baipariguda town in the mineral rich district of Koraput, about 540 km from here.

The rescue team recovered nine dead bodies from the spot Sunday and one dead body was recovered Monday.

Police said the rebels detonated the landmine when a large number of the state police’s Special Operation Group (SOG) personnel were going in three vehicles on a road clearing mission to ensure trouble free movement of central forces in the area for an anti Maoist operation.

Nine people sustained serious injuries in the attack and have been shifted to Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.